"March" for Orchestra - a short little piece I wrote

Hello fellow composers! I am very excited to present my newest work, a short little March for orchestra. I wanted to take a break from large scale works and write something short and sweet. Also, I realize the piece isn't a march in the traditional sense, but the name seemed fitting so I went with it.

I had a few goals in mind as I composed this, feel free to evaluate how well I achieved them:

• Focus on simple, memorable themes and motives
• Write a short fun piece for a standard orchestra, while still keeping the orchestration interesting and diverse.
• Make use of chromaticism in the baseline.
• Harmonize each climax slightly differently.

The movement is structured as one simple theme that repeats three times, with each iteration having unique orchestration and harmony.

• First, the melody is presented by woodwind choir, with the Cello joining later and presenting a countermelody
• Second, the Violins have the melody, with the Horn eventually joining with a new countermelody and reaching a louder climax
• Finally, the Cello and Bassoons take the melody, with an answer by the Horns, Clarinets, and Oboes. The piece climaxes with the full orchestra, then winds down to a peaceful close, with pizzicato strings playing out the opening rhythmic motive

As usual, I have several questions for feedback, feel free to answer as many or as few as you wish:

• What effect does the music have on you? Does in conjure up an image? Or an emotional feeling? Does it tell you a story? This can be the piece as a whole, or a specific part or parts.
• What was your favorite part? What was your least favorite part?
• How well do you think the motives are developed?
• Do you have any comments or critiques on technique, e.g. harmony, melody writing, counterpoint, orchestration, voice-leading, etc.?
• How do you feel about the overall form? Is it effective?
• Do you have any comments of the quality of the performance in the audio file? I really want this to be a decent representation of how the piece would sound if it were performed live, since it is unlikely it ever will be. Feel free to put your "conductor hat" on and critique the "orchestra".
• I have included a score and welcome any constructive feedback on its presentation. And if you're like me it's a lot more fun to follow along with the score.
• Are there any composers this reminds you of, that I might enjoy listening to?

Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoy! If you liked something I did and want me to explain how I did it, feel free to ask.

-gmm

Score link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HMmg0kJ8Iw_k85-79XjFleoBHdmIU6NG/view?usp=drive_link
 

A splendid orchestration!  I can hear your experience of mocking up the Nutcracker March coming through in your woodwind writing at meas. 56 - 58.  This march isn't overly stately and dignified - it's rather sweet and quaint.  One little critique I have is that your resolution of your phrase at meas. 10 seems a bit repetitive.  I mean like, I would have tried to resolve the phrase in some different way given that you already had a C# to B appoggiatura at meas. 4 and then you repeat those same notes again in meas. 10 & 12.  That's just a personal pet peeve I guess - and it's not like it could be changed or anything at this point.  This music makes me think of the movie "Up" for some reason.  I feel like it has the same character as that soundtrack (don't ask me how I haven't seen that movie in forever LoL).  Thanks for sharing!

Peter

Sounds like Mahler in some respects.

18 hours ago, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

A splendid orchestration!  I can hear your experience of mocking up the Nutcracker March coming through in your woodwind writing at meas. 56 - 58.  This march isn't overly stately and dignified - it's rather sweet and quaint.  One little critique I have is that your resolution of your phrase at meas. 10 seems a bit repetitive.  I mean like, I would have tried to resolve the phrase in some different way given that you already had a C# to B appoggiatura at meas. 4 and then you repeat those same notes again in meas. 10 & 12.  That's just a personal pet peeve I guess - and it's not like it could be changed or anything at this point.  This music makes me think of the movie "Up" for some reason.  I feel like it has the same character as that soundtrack (don't ask me how I haven't seen that movie in forever LoL).  Thanks for sharing!

Peter

 

Thanks man, glad you liked it! It's good to hear my work on mockups is spilling over into my own work.

I see what you're saying about the C# to B appoggiatura, I guess I was thinking m.4 kind of establishes the "home base", then m.6-8 feel like a departure from "home base", so when you return at m.10 it feels like more satisfying to return to "home base". I could see how varying this could sound resolved too though.

This is so gorgeous! I love it! It may be short, but it is such a joyful listen. I can imagine lovers in a field of flowers...perhaps a montage of their love! Or...just the end of a beautiful day with memories and dreams of the fun times had, and those yet to come.

Nice..  Quite catchy actually.  There are some things you can add on the vertical to make this even more powerful, but is still works.

My gripe: Put your full name on your music.  If people want to seek you out and play your music, they don't know how.  No need to put "composed by".  Just put your name, and ALL ways put contact information in your verso. (that's the stuff on the bottom)

1 hour ago, maestrowick said:

Nice..  Quite catchy actually.  There are some things you can add on the vertical to make this even more powerful, but is still works.

My gripe: Put your full name on your music.  If people want to seek you out and play your music, they don't know how.  No need to put "composed by".  Just put your name, and ALL ways put contact information in your verso. (that's the stuff on the bottom)

 

Hi @maestrowick, thank you for your feedback! I’m not sure what you mean by “add on the vertical”, do you mind explaining?

12 minutes ago, gmm said:

Hi @maestrowick, thank you for your feedback! I’m not sure what you mean by “add on the vertical”, do you mind explaining?

 

Think of a suspension bridge.  Great compositions you can see some vertical alignment along with the horizontal.   It's more than just stacking a chord though.  Ravel and Debussy do this sooooo well. 

31 minutes ago, maestrowick said:

Think of a suspension bridge.  Great compositions you can see some vertical alignment along with the horizontal.   It's more than just stacking a chord though.  Ravel and Debussy do this sooooo well. 

 

Unfortunately the link is broken for me. And I'm not sure I understand still, are you referring to the presentation in the score being vertically aligned? Sorry for my misunderstanding

I love this. Thanks so much for sharing!

Hey @gmm,

I had actually listened the piece right after your release but I had yet reviewed it since I had zero motivation to do so this week until now. 
 

Your orchestration is always masterful and I have no doubt for that even with this simpler piece from you. The melody is really catchy and you vary it with rich orchestral colours full of contrast. Your piece will be one of my references for orchestral writing once I start doing so. I really love that cello countermelody, and the balancing of the voices are just so right throughout the piece. 

On 2/3/2024 at 9:40 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

That's just a personal pet peeve I guess

I am sure of that too LoL! I think Ravel does the same thing in your favourite Bolero right?!😜 For me I sometimes avoid varieties if they are too minimal haha!

On 2/7/2024 at 3:33 AM, maestrowick said:

Think of a suspension bridge.  Great compositions you can see some vertical alignment along with the horizontal.   It's more than just stacking a chord though.  Ravel and Debussy do this sooooo well. 

You mean the fluidity in their music? I agree they do that sooooo well, but we don’t always have to write like Ravel and Debussy right? I just enjoy the strophic form being employed here and actually the less fluid transition here serve the purpose well for me! The last movement of Mahler’s fourth Symphony work likes this too to my understanding.

Thx for sharing your works here gmm! Always enjoy them.

Henry
 

When I was like 17, I wrote this piece called the Puppet March. This reminds me of that. 😄

The orchestration is ridiculous... gahdamboy. I'm trying to orchestrate something, and I've been peeking over at your score the past few days for tips and questions. So, thanks for that!

I just love how the different layers of music are so clear. Nothing seems blurry, and you show a vast knowledge of orchestral color in this. Although simple in theme (as was your goal), you twist and turn the music at the ends of phrases so well, keeping us all on our toes for those moments. The coloring was always interesting and kept me engaged throughout. 

Only one small piece of criticism. The theme is very catchy, very much an earworm. But I was begging for some sort of change. A counter melody, even if short, imo could serve aid really well. I think an A A A type of form can work, but maybe more variation and deviation from the original character of the theme would work better? Or like I said, just having that 4 bar break of something complimentary might be useful. That's all subjective, of course. 

This seemed like a practice piece/change of pace from the monumental music I've heard from you; it must have been nice to let loose and have fun! That obviously doesn't detract from your skills as an orchestrator. It's once again top notch!

Thanks for sharing this, I always look forward to the music you post 🙂

- #1 gmm fanboi 

Thanks @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu and @Thatguy v2.0 for your kind and encouraging words, I'm glad you like it!

1 hour ago, Thatguy v2.0 said:

Only one small piece of criticism. The theme is very catchy, very much an earworm. But I was begging for some sort of change. A counter melody, even if short, imo could serve aid really well. I think an A A A type of form can work, but maybe more variation and deviation from the original character of the theme would work better? Or like I said, just having that 4 bar break of something complimentary might be useful. That's all subjective, of course. 

This is a fair point. I was attempting to do this with the passage starting at 1:32, but admittedly it is quite short lived.

Thanks again for listening!

simple but charming melodies and motifs and very smooth for a march !

Hi, a lovely light happy and joyous march.  For me, it reminds me of the Italian Opera ... as all the players marched on stage -  I was waiting for the soloist to begin the Aria!

Great orchestration/texture/color ...........

Mark